Off-duty Chicago police officer fatally shot during pursuit

by The Associated Press

A Chicago Police officer speaks a with a pedestrian at the scene where an off-duty officer was shot while assisting a tactical team at a state government office building, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP)

There were initial media reports that the man may have been involved in the robbery of a local business, but Johnson did not provide details about what the man was doing that prompted officers to want to speak with him.

Witnesses to parts of the incident near said they heard gunshots.

"I was walking down the street and I heard 'pop pop pop pop pop,'" Noreen Danko, who was walking to her office nearby, told the Chicago Tribune. "And I said to the girl next to me, 'Is that what I think it is?' And she said 'Yep.' I said 'Aw geez.' And everybody is scurrying all over and I see the police head to the stairs there. There's a stairwell there. And it goes downstairs. I heard that the door is locked there. It used to be a pedway, but now, for security reasons they have it locked."

She told the paper that she saw officers lead the shackled suspect away and put him in a squad car, and then watched as emergency workers administered CPR to Bauer, who was lying on a stretcher, before he was put inside an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.

"I just ask the citizens of this city to keep the Bauer family in their prayers," Johnson said before he turned and left the briefing.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel offered his condolences, too, calling Bauer's death "a tragic reminder of the dangerous duty the men and women of our police department accept to ensure the safety of us all."